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Golden opportunity awaits New Orleans Saints in rainy Carolina

Carolina Panthers vs. New Orleans Saints

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees said this week the club knows exactly how high the stakes are in Sunday's game at Carolina: "Let's not make it any bigger than it already is."
(Michael DeMocker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The weather
forecast on Sunday here is a good news-bad news scenario for the New
Orleans Saints.

The good news: Unseasonable temperatures in the low 70s are expected for their noon kickoff against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium, rendering irrelevant their dubious record in
cold-weather games.

The bad news: The forecast
also calls for lots of wind and rain, the dreaded double whammy for a
pass-oriented offense like the Saints.

Normally, this might be cause
for concern but deep down I think the Saints are privately relishing this opportunity.
It's the perfect scenario, really. After being hailed as NFC favorites all
season, doubts about their Super Bowl worthiness have crept into the national
discourse after ugly road losses at Seattle and St. Louis. It's the ideal
set-up, a chance to prove wrong the world. And few teams love to disprove their skeptics
more than these Saints, even if they insisted all week redemption is not part
of their motivation.

"At the end of the day, we know what we're playing for here,"
Saints quarterback Drew Brees said.

The stakes are about as high as they can be for a regular-season game. If the Saints win they secure the NFC South Division
title and at worst the all-important No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs. If they
lose, they're staring at a visit to either Philadelphia, Chicago, Green Bay,
Detroit or Dallas in the wild-card playoffs in two weeks.

For the Saints, who have lost four of their
past five road games yet remain unbeaten at home, it could mean the difference
between a first-round postseason flameout and another Super Bowl title. See the
2009 and 2010 postseasons for evidence.

"I think as competitors we like just having the
opportunity to play in games like this," said a less-than-convincing Saints
coach Sean Payton, when asked if playing on the road would serve as extra
incentive for his team. "It is a lot better than the alternative."

Still, you know the uber-competitive Payton
would love nothing more than to prove wrong the skeptics, especially in the
wake of last Sunday's dispiriting loss to the Rams.

I mean, can you think of a
better way to celebrate a division title than to win it on the road against a
division rival in hostile weather conditions? This is exactly the kind of game
critics say the Saints can't win. To win here, against this team in potentially bad weather would make the spoils of victory even more enjoyable for the
visiting Saints. The charter flight back to New Orleans would be epic.

"We know what we're playing for; we're playing
for the divisional championship and the two seed so it doesn't get any bigger
or better than that," Brees said.

It helps that there appears
to be a little simmering animosity between the clubs. Panthers players and
coaches were quick to dismiss the Saints' 31-13 victory three
weeks ago. Panthers coach Ron Rivera all but credited the win to the
Mercedes-Benz Superdome, then candidly suggested, "We will see how things go
when they come to Carolina."

Panthers players said Rivera
actually predicted the Saints would lose to the Rams setting up the showdown
for the division title. Cornerback Captain Munnerlyn echoed the sentiments of
many of his teammates when he dismissed the Saints' victory three weeks ago as some sort of pigskin outlier.

"I think it's going to be a totally
different game plan and we're going to go out there and execute, and we're
going to win the game," Munnerlyn told The Charlotte Observer.

Rarely do you hear NFL opponents as cocky and confident before a
meeting with the Saints. Then again, the Panthers undoubtedly have witnessed
the yawning disparity between the Saints' performances at home and on the road.
They also might be encouraged by the weather report.

Payton has long stressed that wind and rain are
far more damaging to the passing game than cold temperatures. Maybe that's why
Rivera has openly solicited Mother Nature to be Carolina's 12th Man.

"Hopefully, it (rain) would affect (the Saints)
adversely, which would be positive for us," Rivera told local reporters here.

The Saints have endured an
eventful week. The fallout from the sobering loss to the Rams, was followed by the surprising release of kicker Garrett Hartley and benching of left tackle Charles Brown.The Saints will play their biggest game of the season with a new place kicker and a
new man protecting Drew Brees' blind side. The bold moves only further underscored
the importance of the game.

"It is going to be a challenge for us," Brees
said. "Obviously we understand our deficiencies on the road here the last
couple of trips. It is great motivation for us to really hammer down this week,
find ways to improve and get better."

Few things in sports are more gratifying than a
road win. A road win over a heated rival for a division championship in bad
weather? Well, that would be nothing short of super for the Saints.